On Sept. 26, 1983, a RussianSoyuz rocketexploded on the launchpad. Two cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov were inside their Soyuz T-10-1 spacecraft atop the rocket, and they barely made it out alive.
Titov and Strekalov's mission was intended to launch the cosmonauts from theBaikonur Cosmodromein Kazakhstan to the Salyut 7 space station. But about 90 seconds before their rocket was supposed to launch, a fire erupted on the launchpad.
Thankfully, the emergency abort escape system ejected theirSoyuz space capsulefrom the top of the rocket just two seconds before the fire caused the explosion. it was the first time the launch escape system was used, but unfortunately it wouldn't be the last.
Why it mattered
The harrowing launch abort of the Soyuz T-10-1 spacecraft (also known as Soyuz T-10A) proved the effectiveness of alaunch escape systemthat no one ever wanted to see actually used. It was the first crewed launch pad abort.
Russia'sSoyuz spacecraft, when stacked atop their Soyuz rockets, have a launch escape tower equipped with its own rocket motors that is designed to rip a Soyuz capsule free of its rocket so the spacecraft can parachute to safety in the event of a launch emergency. Similar launch abort systems were used on NASA's Mercury Gemini andApollo missions, as well as on the agency'sSpace Launch Systemrocket and Orion spacecraft. (SpaceX's Crew Dragon and Blue Origin's New Shepard use a"pusher" escape sytemdesigned to blast a capsule free, rather than pulling up and away.)
The Soyuz rocket failure was apparently caused by a fire at the base of the booster about a minute before liftoff,according to the Encyclopedia Astronautica. And while the escape system worked as planned, it wasn't a comfortable ride. The launch abort system ripped the Soyuz capsule free of its rocket with so much force, Titov and Strekalov were subjected to 20Gs (or 20 times the force of gravity) as the capsule streaked away from the exploding rocket.
While Soyuz T-10-1 was the first Soyuz launch abort, it wasn't the last.
On Oct. 11, 2018, a Soyuz rocket carryingNASA astronaut Nick Hagueand Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Rogozin on a mission to the International Space Stationfailed during flight(so during ascent, not on the pad), triggering the launch abort system. As with Soyuz T-10-1, the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft did land safely, with the descent module jettisoning its orbital and service modules and deploying parachutes. A booster separation issue caused the abort.
"I imagined that my first trip to outer space was going to be a memorable one,"Hague said in interviewsafter the abort. "I didn't expect it to be quite this memorable."
Hague and Rogozin experienced about 6.7 Gs during the launch abort, but where otherwise safe. Hague laterreturned to spaceflight in February 2019, safely launching on another Soyuz rocket to the the ISS.
Want more space history? Check out ourfull On This Day In Space Story archiveand watch ourOn This Day In Space videos on YouTube.
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Contributing expert
Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.
With contributions from
- Tariq MalikEditor-in-Chief
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